Put a 351-w in my 55 Sunliner but with the engine up against the firewall there is still not much room for a fan so I put six brackets on a V8 radiator and got too much room but it worked great until I needed a radiator with a trans cooler so back to a original style radiator and now to get a fan on it. Fan with no spacer will hit the alternator and the smallest spacer I have in stock is one inch but the fan is way too close to the new radiator to be comfortable so I ordered a 3/4 spacer from Speedway so that should get me where I need to be,when I was putting it togather I could have gotten a 69 Galaxie that was wrecked when close to new and made into a truck that had a 6000 original mile 390 for less then a grand and should have gotten it since those FEs are not as long as those Windsors and bolt in. Now if it had a 3 speed manual trans or that original automatic started out in first like a normal trans all I would have done was do some improvements to the engine using 57 and up parts and been done so shortly I am going to get the 55 272 ready to go in with those 57 and up parts but if I used that low mile 390 I would not be thinking about changing.
A 351W doesn't fit the same. The Y-block and FE both were 'drivers side forward' designs (cylinder bank offset), every Ford V8 after was opposite, I'm assuming to allow more room for stuff like AC boxes. I squeezed a 351 into a '56 I had when the 292 broke it's crank and block, but I used the donor car mounts ('71 LTD) and home-made adaptors between the mounts and the frame. The now-commonly-used Fox-body mounts didn't exist yet AFAIK (early '80s). By putting the drivers side head about 1/4" from the firewall, I was able to leave the radiator where it was, bolted the '56 fan directly to the water pump with no spacer and it all fit... just. I did have to remove the OEM throttle linkage as there was zero room for that, used the donor car cable linkage instead. The original lower molded-curve radiator hose fit perfectly, as did the dual-diaphragm Y-block fuel pump. It looked factory....
Take. A. Deep. Breath. And. Slow. Down. I say this because having read many of your previous posts you seem almost frantic to get things done and in the process of trying to fix the problem at hand what you end up doing is digging the hole deeper. (1) If the radiator you have in the car fits and works but you need a trans cooler, instead of all the time-and-effort-consuming gyrations of grabbing whatever radiator you have lying around and trying to make it work you should be taking the simple solution of buying and install an aftermarket radiator cooler. (2) A low mileage 390 would have been a great engine to put in your '55 Sunliner, but not after you've gone through all the time and effort of installing a 351.
@junkyardjeff Just use a Ford Performance Parts M-8501-E351S short waterpump [approx 1.5" shorter than normal]
Install your cooler under the car on the frame. Gets plenty of air flow and the cooler lines are shorter. My Pro-Street Morris Minor with an AOD trans was run like that and it was a daily driver for 3 years. that would solve your moving the radiator.
I bought a new aluminum radiator that is correct for the 55 since its going to get another Y block next winter and yes I made more work for myself since I have to undo some of the modifications I made but would have to do it any way since its going back
I was never satisfied with the 351,I specified a rv grind cam since it got a tall gear but it wants to make power over 2500 so it does not and the engine has been noisy since day one and getting worse. Since I had trans issues too I will be starting over and doing what I originally planned before getting talked out of it by a friend so putting a correct radiator back in is the first start,the used C-4 I installed a couple months ago is not right so why waste money fixing it when its not going to stay. I am going to spend the money resealing the 272 and getting a 62 COM trans rebuilt with a later FMX valve body,I am not going to spend any more money on the 351/C-4 and hope I can get another summer out of it. If I would have gotten that 390 I could have dressed it up like a 1960 360 horse 352 and would have looked better then that 351 and definately ran better.
Did not bid on it and it sold for around 800 dollars,was worried that in 30 years the oil did not get changed much even with the low miles and passed on it.
I really do not like the looks of aluminum radiators but unless I want to spend a ton of money do not have much of a choice.
Will I have trouble with cooling,cut the splash pan when I moved the radiator to the six position and still have the part I cut out.
I used a radiator for a ‘68 mustang in my ‘54, it was cheap, looks way better than any aluminum radiator and it cools my y block just fine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was thinking about a Mustang radiator but would liked to measured one first,this one was not much more then a Mustang radiator. No one locally had one I could check out.
Rock auto had the measurements online so I just chose the biggest that would fit and had the inlet/outlet where I needed them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Put an electric fan in front of the radiator. Minivans have them and junkyards are full of them. Don't forget the thermostat switch to control it. Saves a few HP by not turning a fan unless you need it. If you don't drive in city traffic you don't often need a fan.
Personally I think the 351w is a beautiful engine but your engine may be on its way out by the way you talk. The 351w gets great mileage even with a street blower. I understand you can put the T bird accessories on the front which is shorter. That 351w with an AOD is a great cruiser setup in my book. The 360 and 390's are super built blocks but seem to be such gas hogs. Maybe some better heads would fix that. I've been running a 1971 360 for the last 50 years and it's still not worn out. I wouldn't bother getting a radiator with a trans cooler, I put a B&M cooler in front of the radiator of my 4 hot rods and I have never had problems and the engines run cool. You need a machinist buddy to make you fan spacers, that way you always have the exact size you need and the spacer will super. Just saying and wishing you good luck, nice 55
FE is quite easy, turn the Y-block mounts around backwards and bolt it in. Flat logs will fit, and IIRC there are headers available- I got FPA's for my 57
My dad bought this 55 new so I want to return it close to the way it was but going to keep the power disc brakes,the 351 will go on the stand and will tear it apart to see just what was done to it and will keep it for another project. Heard a bunch of horror stories about the engine builder and suprised its still going so since I am not getting any younger its going to be the way I really want it. Now if I could find one of those 1960 360 HP 352s it could all change but for now its going to be a 55 272 hooked to a 62 COM with the air cooled FOM bellhousing to look original with a FMX valve body so it has a normal shift pattern. My 37 Chevy needs to get the new 235 before this can go togather so that will happen this spring.
An old friend's dad had a 54 in the late 70's, and his son was big into 427 Cobras, GT40s and such, and a few guys had bought a truckfull of stuff from a Holman & Moody sale, including a stack of NOS in the crate sideoiler blocks, so Pops has given one. He put it together with a nice set of Medium Risers and a Shelby Dominator intake and dropped it in, added 65 LTD disc brakes and a 65 GT350 rearend with a Locker and 3.89s behind a HD 3spd with OD- still olive drab and plain hubcaps, mega sleeper, would have made a great likker car. Sent a few kidz in Camaros and Chebbies home muttering after getting smoked by an old grampa in a plain old Ford
Here's another option. I have a 5.0/AOD combo in my '54 and I needed fan clearance. I pirated the radiator out of my '93 Mustang donor car. It was a little wide so I bumped it out. I cut out the core support plus a couple of inches on each side..... Then I fabbed lower brackets and welded them to the crossmember and made an upper bracket out of 1" flat bar that spanned the width and tied both sides together..... Had to notch the pan just a bit..... Made some sheetmetal covers to hide the tanks...... The good things are, the factory tranny lines bolt right up as does the upper rad hose. Removed 2" out of the lower hose and it fit. Now, I'm running an electric fan but theoretically, you could bump out the rad another inch or two and you could fit any mechanical fan you wanted in there.
If I would have gotten that 390 I probably would not be wanting to change it,ran into a problem as I thought I had plenty of room between the fan and radiator but no and destroyed the radiator in a couple blocks. I never liked the way the engine sat with the kit I used so I put some spacers between the trans and mount so there will be more room at the bottom of the radiator,bought a new fan and a 1/2 spacer but they did not work so off to the junkyard today and got a fan off a 65 Fairlane with a six and it fits without a spacer and does not hit the top alternator bolt like a V8 fan would so I will have plenty of room now.
I feel like this doesn't make sense. The Windsor is a shorter engine than the Y block. I'm pretty sure the Y block is 29" long and the Windsor is a bit shorter. There should be no reason as to why you'd be having this issue. I feel like there is a problem elsewhere manifesting itself with the problem you're having now. It looks as though the engine is up too high and at too steep of an angle, which is why the fan destroyed the bottom of your radiator but you have a load of clearance at the top.
The engine is actually too low and the fan is not centered in the radiator plus it sits down in the rear,the drivers side head is up against the firewall so it can not come back any more. I added spacers to get the rear of the engine up more and gained some more room at the bottom but I think the water pump sits higher on the Y block and will measure both engines today,that rusty fan is from a six and gives me much more room but I hope it will pull enough air at idle and get me by until next winter when the Y block will go in.
My suspicions were true the water pump does sit about 1 1/2 inches higher on a Y block then on a Windsor,I am going to measure a FE next.
It went down the road and no fan in the radiator but that six cylinder fan is not going to work,even with as chilly it was tonight the temp gauge was creeping up while idling but goes right back to normal when going down the road so need to look at more fans. That fan made for a 170 or 200 is not going to cool a 351.
You can hide the aluminum radiator by painting it satin black like most cars of that era. Getting rid of the silver shine will make it disappear.
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